'Biggest Loser' Australia's Lydia Hantke: 'I hated the game-playing'

The Biggest Loser Australia's Lydia Hantke has revealed that she hated the game-playing involved in the reality weight loss show.

The 34-year-old tourism manager from Tasmania, who was eliminated from the show during Sunday night's episode, said that she just wanted to focus on losing weight during her time in the house rather than getting involved in the politics.

Hantke said in her official exit interview: "I think the mental side of the game was the biggest struggle for me. I can train until the cows come home and the happiest times for me were when I was in the gym and the only person in there.

"I didn't realise that this group of people focussed way too much on the strategy side and social side of the game, rather than being above the Yellow Line and saving themselves by losing weight."

Hantke said of The Biggest Loser: "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity that we get and you have to make the most of it. I wanted to walk out of the house at 80 kilos, I wanted that more than anything, but I also wanted to be a better person.

"It took me until halfway to realise that wasn't going to be something physically that was going to happen, it had to be an emotional thing as well. After I realised that, it made the game even more worthwhile to me.

"To walk into the house at 140 kilos and not really care what I looked like day-to-day, to being transformed into someone that I really didn't recognise - it made me start to see myself in a totally different light. I started to see myself as the person I wanted to be. I realised I was someone who didn't have to be embarrassed about my appearance anymore."

Immediately after her elimination, Hantke was invited to join trainer Shannan Ponton's secret training team along with other eliminated contestants such as Lisa Ritherdon and Simon Hurley. As part of this group, she could win the right to return to the competition.